: if you disconnect a power cable, where does the electricity that is still in the cable go?
In: 40
there are plenty of ELI5s that discuss the basics of electrical flow and how a formed circuit is required to conduct electricity through a device, so by unplugging it you are breaking the circuit between the common and hot prongs and removing the path for electricity to flow- but I’m guessing this isn’t what you are really asking…
assuming you are asking about the energy that was traveling through the cable at the time it was disconnected, it pretty much stays there as static charge (capacitance) as long as nothing is draining it from the other side, with the amount of charge left based on the cable properties (thickness, conductance, etc) and the voltage that was driving the current flow. things that could drain the static charge on the other end include transformers, power regulators, or based on the way the source unit is grounded. in heavy power transmission lines, this is typically called “residual power” and can be very dangerous, though it has more to do with the actual capacitors involved and less-so the capacitance of the cables.
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